The *Power?* That Preserves (What?)

[Krilly]

I was thinking about the titles of TC the other day and realised they're all very straight forward... except for THIS one.

What do you guys think the power is? And what is it preserving?

[Chuchichastli]

Yeah, I've sometimes wondered that. I assume it means White Gold / Wild Magic.

Maybe it means Covenant himself, or his innate survival mechanisms that have helped him cope with leprosy and allowed him to walk the precarious-but-necessary thin line between hope and damnation whilst in the Land...

At the end of the day though, it all boils down to the white gold. Preserving the Land and its Laws. Preserving Covenant against despair & leprosy as well.

[wayfriend]

As the echo of their voices faded, High Lord Prothall spoke again. "We are the new preservers of the Land - votaries and handservants of the Earthpower; sworn and dedicated to the retrieval of Kevin's Lore, and to the healing of the Earth from all that is barren or unnatural, ravaged, foundationless, or perverse. ..."

Slowly, she looked around the table, meeting the eyes of each of the Lords. Then in a clear, stately voice, she said, ... "The time of preparation is ended. No longer do we build or plan against the future. Now we go to war. If our might is not potent to preserve the Land, then we fall, and whatever world is to come will be of the Despiser's making, not ours.... We are the proud preservers of the Land!"

The power that preserves is the power of the Lords, all the people of the Land, and Covenant himself, in the service of preserving the Land.

[Relayer]

I've always taken it as a reference to Lord Kevin's Lament:

"Where is the power that protects beauty from the decay of life"

(which I guess makes 2 book titles drawn from this poem).

And what I think both really refer to is the power to love and to laugh, no matter what. The things Mhoram and Foamfollower learned that enabled their victories. The beauty of the thing being served enables service.

Where is the power that preserves? In our hearts and our spirit.

[Zarathustra]

It's love--or hope. Whatever is the opposite of Despite, the power that destroys/corrupts/decays.

[Furls Fire]

I think Mhoram said it best:

Hail, Unbeliever! Keeper and Covenant,
Unoathed truth and wicked's bane,
Ur-Lord Illender, Prover of Life:
Hail! Covenant!
Dour-handed wild magic wielder,
Ur-Earth white gold's servant and Lord-
Yours is the power that preserves.

Sing out, people of the Land --
Raise obeisance!
Hold honor and glory high to the end of days:
Keep clean the truth that was won!
Hail, Unbeliever!
Covenant!
Hail!

Covenant's "power", the paradox of white gold...save or damn the Earth. In the end, it was he himself who overcame the despair, overcame the despite.

with one word of truth or treachery
he will save or damn the Earth...

Covenant found his power in the truth of what he was, what Foul was.

joy is in the ears that hear

What greater power is there? Joy, love, hope...with those...ah the very mountains move.

[Fist and Faith]

Yup - Love. The idea is most easily seen in Lord Mhoram's Victory:

He was alone against them.

He retreated to the center of the hollow, hunted swiftly around the rim for some gap or weakness in the surrounding horde. He found none. And though he sent his perceptions ranging as far as he could through the air, he discovered no sign of the Warward; if the warriors were still alive, still fighting, they were blocked from his senses by the solid force of the trap.

As he grasped the utterness of his plight, he turned inward, retreated into himself as if he were fleeing. There he looked the end of all his hopes and all his Landservice in the face, and found that its scarred, terrible visage no longer appalled him. He was a fighter, a man born to fight for the Land. As long as something for which he could fight remained, he was impervious to terror. And something did remain; while he lived, at least one flame of love for the Land still burned. He could fight for that.

Also Foamfollower's love for damn near everything; Covenant's love for Foamfollower, Bannor, and the Land in general; etc.; etc.; etc...

(Hi Tracie! )

[Furls Fire]

Hi Eric!

Mhoram's faith in Covenant always astounds me when I do a re-read. He saw something in the Unbeliever that no one else in the Land did (not even Foamfollower).

You turn from us to save life in your own world. We will not be undone by such motives. And if darkness should fall upon us, still the beauty of the Land endures. If we are a dream-and you the dreamer-then the Land is imperishable, for you will not forget.

[wayfriend]

This is why I say, it's Coventant's power, and the Lord's power, and everyone else who served the Land. It's not Covenant alone. There would be no chapter called Lord Mhoram's Victory if Donaldson wanted it to be Covenant alone preserving the Land.

[Loredoctor]

[Humour]I always assumed it was a reference to TC's power supply; the electricity powering the fridge that preserves the food. Which is a link in itself because he has to go to town to pay the bills. Therefore the land's struggles are a metaphor for his difficulty in paying the bills. If he cant pay the electricity bill the power that preserves the food in the fridge is wasted; hence the land is under threat.[/Humour]

[Xar]

[Humour]I always assumed it was a reference to TC's power supply; the electricity powering the fridge that preserves the food. Which is a link in itself because he has to go to town to pay the bills. Therefore the land's struggles are a metaphor for his difficulty in paying the bills. If he cant pay the electricity bill the power that preserves the food in the fridge is wasted; hence the land is under threat.[/Humour]

So that would mean the Land is a metaphor for fridge supplies? And Foul is a metaphor for mold?
And Lena's rape...

[Zarathustra]

This is why I say, it's Coventant's power, and the Lord's power, and everyone else who served the Land. It's not Covenant alone. There would be no chapter called Lord Mhoram's Victory if Donaldson wanted it to be Covenant alone preserving the Land.

Well, if Mhoram is part of Covenant's psyche . . . nevermind

[dlbpharmd]

Good posts, Furlsy and Fisty.

[iQuestor]

[Humour]I always assumed it was a reference to TC's power supply; the electricity powering the fridge that preserves the food. Which is a link in itself because he has to go to town to pay the bills. Therefore the land's struggles are a metaphor for his difficulty in paying the bills. If he cant pay the electricity bill the power that preserves the food in the fridge is wasted; hence the land is under threat.[/Humour]

So that would mean the Land is a metaphor for fridge supplies? And Foul is a metaphor for mold?
And Lena's rape...

is a metaphor for the rates the power and gas companies are charging

[Revenant]

It was definitely our dear Ur-Lord Lysolbreath.

[The Somberlain]

I always took it to be the power from outside the Land - Covenant's power - in reference to the "Stone and sea are deep in life,
two unalterable symbols of the world.
Permanence at rest, permanence in motion;
Participants in the power that remains." of the Giants.

i.e., that Earthpower is potent and pretty much undefeatable, but it's the wild magic alone that has the power to keep the Land alive.

[Relayer]

Straight from the man himself:

I've always assumed that "the power that preserves" is love for and commitment to the Land; love and commitment which can only be found (as both Covenant and Mhoram find them) in "the eye of the paradox".

(10/11/2006)

[Fist and Faith]

Go Fisty!
Go Fisty!
Go Fisty!
It's your birthday!

[Furls Fire]

*looks at Fisty* Ahem

[Fist and Faith]

I gotta make sure you're paying attention, don't I?